Mandela Wins Free Eleection De Klerk Ready to Cooperate

By Bob DroginLos Angeles TimesJOHANNESBURG, South Africa

Nelson Mandela, the enduring symbol of the anti-apartheid struggle and
the inspiration of a nation, claimed victory Monday night in South Africa's
first free elections and urged both blacks and whites in this divided land
to "loudly proclaim from the rooftops - free at last!"

In an emotional speech before an ecstatic crowd, the silver-haired
leader of the African National Congress called the success of his political
and racial revolution "a joyous night for the human spirit" and urged his
still stunned country to "celebrate the birth of democracy."

"I am your servant," Mandela told a hotel ballroom packed with cheering
supporters, many of whom were hunted and imprisoned as terrorists,
saboteurs and enemies of the state by the racist white rulers in Pretoria
less than five years ago. "I stand before you humbled by your courage, with
a heart full of love for all of you."

Mandela, 75, was hoarse from a cold, and his face appeared puffy. He
said his doctor had ordered him to rest for two days and use his voice
sparingly. "I hope you will not disclose to him that I did not obey his
instructions," he joked.

But he finished his speech with a beaming grin and returned a few
moments later to perform an impromptu dance on the stage as a majestic
choir sang his praises and the crowd ululated and swayed to the
irresistible African rhythm. Balloons in the ANC colors - black, yellow and
green - cascaded from the ceiling.

And soon the township streets of Soweto and Alexandra, where millions of
poor blacks have finally won the vote and their liberation, were filled
with celebrating crowds.

Although less than half the ballots have been counted, Mandela's ANC has
taken a commanding lead after last week's unexpectedly peaceful elections.
Mandela is to be elected president by the new National Assembly on Friday
in Cape Town and formally inaugurated as the nation's first black president
next Tuesday morning in Pretoria.

The current president, Frederik W. de Klerk, will officially step down
then, and the formal transfer of power from the white minority to the black
majority will be complete. De Klerk will work as one of two vice presidents
under Mandela, a fitting symbol of the titanic shift of authority here
after 3{ centuries of white rule.

De Klerk conceded defeat early Monday evening in a gracious speech that
offered "congratulations, good wishes and prayers" for his rival. "I hold
out my hand to Mr. Mandela in friendship and cooperation," he told several
hundred supporters, many of them weeping, at his party offices in
Pretoria.

De Klerk pledged to continue the policies of reconciliation that led him
to release Mandela from 27 years in prison in February 1990 to help
dismantle the institutions of apartheid and to begin the negotiations that
led to universal suffrage and last week's historic elections.

"During the last four years, we have proved that we can work together,"
de Klerk said of Mandela. "Despite our differences, our relationship has
become a symbol of the ability of South Africans from widely different
backgrounds to cooperate in the national interest. This spirit will be
essential to the success of the government of national unity."

De Klerk, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize with Mandela,
attempted to reassure the whites who still make up the bulk of his
once-all-white party's support. "Just as we could not rule South Africa
without the support of the ANC and its supporters, no government will be
able to rule South Africa without the support of the people and the
institutions that I represent," he said.

But he added that the country finally had a government that represents
its 40 million people. "After so many centuries, all South Africans are now
free," he said.

With about 46 percent of the estimated 22.7 million votes counted since
Saturday morning, the ANC had 63.5 percent of the tally to 23.2 percent for
de Klerk's National Party. Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi's Inkatha
Freedom Party was a distant third with 5.9 percent, followed by the
white-supremacist Freedom Front at 2.8 percent; other parties divided the
remainder of the vote.

The ANC appeared likely to win eight of the nine new provinces, in some
areas capturing more than 80 percent of the vote. After an especially
bitter local race, the National Party held a strong lead over the ANC in
the Western Cape region around Cape Town. The province has a majority of
mixed-race "colored" voters and the National Party successfully played on
their fears of black rule.

The ANC trailed Inkatha in KwaZulu and surrounding Natal province in
early returns, but votes from ANC strongholds in urban townships around
Durban had yet to come in.

It was still possible the the ANC would reach its stated goal of winning
two-thirds of the vote. It had hoped to gain a clear constitutional
majority in the 400-member National Assembly to write a permanent
post-apartheid constitution without compromising with other parties.